


surrender

by rxginamills



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Love at First Sight, Riverdale, apparently i can't write longer one shots anymore, au where cheryl and toni meet at homecoming, bughead - Freeform, choni, dedicated to a lovely!, i don't watch riverdale i've never written choni pls don't be upset if it's bad or ooc, i'm so clueless, i'm sorry i wanted to make this longer, let's pretend they can drink legally ok? ok, they're whipped from the second they first see each other basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 14:17:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14546535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rxginamills/pseuds/rxginamills
Summary: Cheryl Blossom and Toni Topaz saw each other at a dance once - and just like that, they were lost.





	surrender

If you didn't know who she was - well, _everyone_ knew who she was, but if you somehow didn't, you probably would've described her with the word 'fire'. She walked with grace and confidence, her brown eyes scanning all of the room as she entered. The people around her parted like the Red Sea and gave her smiles, looks of adoration and even a few whistles. She bathed in the feeling of being loved and appreciated, because it was well deserved. Her hair was as red as fire or the sun itself, her dress even more so. The clicking of her tall heels completed the image. Cheryl Blossom was a vision and she was well aware of it.

In the back of the room, by the drinks table, stood someone else. She, too, was beautiful in her own way. Her eyes were cold like ice - deceiving, perhaps, as you would find out her soul was warm and kind when you got to know her better. She gave off an aura of strength. The things she had seen, the things she had done, experienced, felt; they all added up to it. She was not wearing a dress that night, but a black tuxedo she pulled off better than all the young men in the room. Toni Topaz was as badass as she was beautiful and although sometimes her faith in that wavered, she knew who she was. 

So maybe it was destiny that they'd meet that night at the homecoming dance. Maybe it was meant to be from the beginning of time when neither of them knew it yet. They were fated to find each other.

It was Toni who noticed Cheryl first; eyed her from head to toe and then downed a shot. The glass hit the table with a quiet bang that only seemed to intensify in Toni's head. She watched as Cheryl walked across the room to her friends, all dressed up as fancy as the rest. They chatted and smiled happily. Cheryl laughed genuine laughter. Something fluttered deep in the pit of Toni's stomach. 

"Toni."

"Jughead. Betty." 

Toni turned around, recognizing Jughead's voice. She saw him standing there with his girlfriend, Betty, in tow. The latter had a surprised look on her face.

"How'd you know I was here? I didn't even say anything."

Toni chuckled, "When are you _not_ with Jughead? And I heard your heels."

"Oh. Right."

Jughead and Betty looked quite good together. Jughead was wearing all black while Betty dressed in yellow. She was the embodiment of a sunflower. In that moment she and Jughead couldn't have been further apart, the colors clashing against each other. Still they completed one another, whether it be figuratively or outfit wise, and the picture of them made Toni smile. 

"Go talk to her." 

Her eyes flickered to Jughead, "Wha - who, Cheryl?"

"Yeah. You've been staring at her ever since she walked in." 

"I have not! I… I have been, haven't I?" Toni quickly realized that Jughead was right and blushed. He smirked. 

"You think she's cute."

"Well, have you _seen_ her? You'd be crazy if you didn't think she was cute." Toni explained.

"Go speak with her, Toni, please. Do yourself a favor. You can never know what might come out of it, it might be something beautiful." Betty said softly. 

"You're infuriatingly optimistic." Toni smiled at her, knowing that she wouldn't take it to heart. Betty twirled around once, showing off her gorgeous dress.

"I see that as my strongest quality." 

Betty began a conversation with Jughead. Toni tuned them out and looked at Cheryl again. The fluttering in her stomach came rushing back. Cheryl was dancing now, swaying her hips from the left to the right to the rhythm of the song. Her smile was wide, so wide that it left everyone else in its shadow. She took her friend's hand and twirled herself around. That's when she noticed Toni too. 

Cheryl's smile faded a little bit. She stopped spinning and almost dancing altogether. For a short moment she and Toni simply gazed at each other, as if the world had always worked like that, as if they had always stared into each other's eyes. Toni looked away just as Cheryl's friend nudged her shoulder with a worried look in her eyes. Cheryl jumped slightly, like startled awake from a dream. She disappeared into the crowd. 

"Did you see th - " 

Toni turned but Jughead and Betty were already gone. She left the drinks table before the temptation to pour one, two, three more shots down her throat became too overwhelming. In a big crowd of people she had never felt more alone. Out of the hundred people she wanted to see one and she was already gone too; probably closer to the exit of the homecoming dance with every second that Toni wasted inside this gym. Then, all of a sudden, the fast song switched into a slower one and Toni spotted Jughead pulling Betty to the dance floor. It was like a rough sea calmed down in an instant. The jumping and quick moving stopped and people began swaying to the gentle melody of the song. Toni couldn't recall the name. 

"Oh my _god_ , you're whipped."

One person after another kept on surprising Toni with their presence. Next to her stood Veronica Lodge, wearing a deep blue dress with a plunging neckline. They weren't the closest of friends but Toni had found herself speaking to her multiple times. Her breath smelled slightly of alcohol, but not enough for Toni to declare her drunk. 

"Whipped? I am not whipped, what are you talking about?" 

" _Toni_."

" _Veronica_."

Veronica rolled her eyes, "You're whipped for Cheryl, dumbass."

"And you're basing this statement on…?"

"The fact that you've been drooling over her all night. I know I'm not the only one who's noticed." 

"You know I'm seeing her for the first time tonight, right?" Toni looked questioningly at Veronica, who snatched a beer can from a passing boy. 

"I still can't believe that's true, but yes, I'm aware of that. There _is_ a thing called love at first sight. Crushing at first sight. Memorizing the shape and color of her eyes at first sight."

Toni shook her head at Veronica, "Love at first sight. _Very_ Disney."

"You're not denying it."

"Now listen - "

Veronica laughed. Toni fought back a little smile herself. She didn't want to admit it but Veronica hadn't lied about anything in her sentence. She had a way of bringing the facts out of Toni - Veronica Lodge was a good kind of manipulative, at least most of the times she squeezed every last bit of truth out of a person with simply her personality as her asset. 

Suddenly Toni saw her. Veronica drowned instantly in the shadow with everyone else that she ignored for Cheryl. She hadn't left the dance. There she was, staring at her across the dance floor almost pleadingly.

"Veronica, you'll have to excuse me."

Toni's feet began to move themselves and she found herself marching up to Cheryl. On the outside she looked more confident than she felt. Only a few times in her life had she been as nervous, as terrified as this. 

Toni made her way up to the redhead queen of the dance, no longer aware of what she was exactly doing. Jughead and Betty smiled from the dance floor. Cheryl's eyes were as wide as plates and her friends whispering a few feet away didn't really help. Toni reached Cheryl and stopped in front of her. She set her black heel down sharply, yet her voice had never been softer.

"Dance with me."

Cheryl took the hand Toni was offering to her at once, without question, without an ounce of hesitation in her mind. The lyrics of the song playing in the gym were now loud and clear to Toni. 

_Can we, can we, surrender_

They walked to the dance floor hand in hand. The rest of the world was fading away quickly. In that moment Earth had two inhabitants and they were Cheryl and Toni. Toni and Cheryl. Their names sounded so great together. Toni dared to hope that she would hear them together in the future too. They spun around to the melody of the song. Cheryl's arms were around her waist, _please god let them stay there forever please please please_ , and it was beautiful. The light made every part of Cheryl shine like 24 karat gold and Toni revelled in it. Nothing had prepared her for this night or this dance, and at the same time she felt like this was what she was born for. She was always meant to dance with to this girl.

It didn't even feel like they didn't know each other. It didn't feel like they were two almost strangers dancing with each other for the first time. It felt like they were old friends, maybe something more, something with hope, something with a future. From the outsiders' point of view this was probably as close to love at first sight as you could get. The song was slowly ending and the silence between the girls was broken.

"I'm Toni Topaz." 

Cheryl smiled contently, "Cheryl Blossom."

"I know."

"And still I don't know _you_ , Toni Topaz. Who are you?"

"For some reason I have a feeling that you're about to find out." 

"I like the sound of that."

"Me too."

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
